Dear Cindy,
There is a discussion archived in T2T that I think you might find interesting.
It is here:
http://mathforum.com/t2t/thread.taco?thread=856
My personal thoughts as a middle school teacher is that Algebra I can be
required of everyone for high school graduation IF (and that is a huge "if")
a variety of learning styles are taken into consideration as the teacher
presents the material!
-Suzanne A., for the Teacher2Teacher service